Father of the Bride
by DebC75
Summary: Post-LK, Nick meets his daughter


Father of the Bride Disclaimers: This is a post-Last Knight story. I have altered some   
events to fit my needs. Tradition FK characters are not mine.   
Catherine, however, is. Permission to archive is granted to Mel Moser   
and her FK Fanfic Archives page. Others who wish to do some   
must ask me for permission in person. A 

"Father of the Bride"   
by Fleurette 

Part I 

"I'm pleased you could come on such short notice, Nick," Aristotle said   
as he motioned for Nick to sit down. 

"This is a nice apartment," Nick commented. "Thank you for inviting   
me." He looked around the living room, eyes catching on the little   
tidbits of "homey-ness" which adorned it. "Did you say that someone   
else was staying here with you?" 

"Yes, in fact, I did. My niece, Catherine." 

"Niece?" Nick puzzled over the words. "You don't have a "niece,"   
Aristotle. Unless, of course, you mean to tell me that she's some sort   
of secret lover?" 

"Nothing of the sort, Nick!" his friend exclaimed. "Catherine is..."   
he paused, seeming to choose his words carefully, "... the daughter of   
an old friend, one who died years ago. I raised her, honoring my   
friend's dying wish." 

"A mortal?" 

"Yes, Catherine is mortal. Her mother was very special to me-- so is   
Catherine," Aristotle said, his voice catching upon a silent sob of   
emotion. 

At that moment, the door opened and a woman entered. She looked to be   
in her mid-twenties. Golden auburn hair, with sparkling blue eyes. The   
smile she gave them radiated with warmth and joy. 

"Uncle Ari!" she exclaimed. "I didn't except you home so soon. Is   
this the friend you were trying to contact?" she asked, turning to study   
Nick. Aristotle nodded. "I'm glad you found him." Catherine gave her   
"uncle" a quick hug and turned towards the   
doorway. "I think I'll take a shower, Uncle Ari," she said. "Can I get   
you anything before I do?" 

"A bottle or two, my dear," Aristotle told her. "Nick and I have much   
to discuss before the night is through." 

Catherine's eyes widened slight at the mention of Nick's name. She met   
Aristotle's gaze and a look of silent communication passed between them.   
Nick felt very much like an outsider--eavesdropping on something he had   
no business seeing. "I'll... be right back," she told them. 

"She... looks familiar somehow," commented Nick as the young woman   
exited the room. 

"She should. She looks very much mike her mother," Aristotle told him. 

"Do I know her mother?" Nick asked. Aristotle nodded. 

"Nick," he began, suddenly sounding more of a business man than a   
friend, "it's on account of Catherine that I've been trying to find you   
all these years. Had you not left Toronto so suddenly, you would have   
known that she was your daughter." 

"What!?" Aristotle's words hit Nick's ears like freezing cold water on   
a hot day--shockingly sharp. Then his eyes fell upon a photograph of   
her in a frame upon the mantle. He saw now the familiar resemblance   
which before he could not place. "She... looks like Natalie." 

"Acts like her, too, my friend," Aristotle told him. "Although, she   
does have *some* of you in her." 

"How?" Nick asked. "How is this possible? Nat was dead. I killed   
her." 

"You didn't kill her, despite what LaCroix says. Let me explain..."   
Aristotle's explanation was put on hold when Catherine returned, bearing   
a tray with two bottles of bloodwine and wine glasses. She set it upon   
the coffee table beside the sofa. When she   
did, her eyes met Nick's briefly. He turned away. 

"I'll leave you both to talk now," she said, speaking to Aristotle. 

"How?" Nick hissed when she was gone again. 

"I said I would explain. It's time you knew the whole truth, anyway,"   
Aristotle said as his explanation began. "It all started the night   
after you left me. LaCroix came..." 

Part II   
(Aristotle's flashback explanation of what happened) 

Aristotle looked up from his computer screen when Lucien LaCroix   
entered his basement headquarters. "LaCroix, what a surpr--" 

"Cut the pleasantries, Aristotle. Where is my son?" 

"Nick?" 

"Yes, Nick! Who else would I be mean? Where *is* he?" 

"I don't know," Aristotle told him. 

"What do you mean, you don't know? You must. He came to you for   
placement elsewhere, didn't he?" 

"He did, yes, but..." Aristotle explained that when turned his back on   
Nick to begin the process of finding him a new location, he had left.   
"The last thing he said to was that I should just forget it, because he   
needed to leave immediately and he didn't have time to waste. Then he   
was gone." 

LaCroix's frown deepened until it looked like a horrible mask. "He   
didn't give any clue as to where he would go?" 

"No. Is Nick in some kind of trouble, LaCroix?" 

The ancient vampire looked at his old friend and sighed deeply. "Not   
really, I suppose, but all the same, he has done something terrible." 

"Such as?"   
  
"There is a woman, a mortal whom I believed he loved. Her name is   
Natalie. Yesterday evening, I arrived at his loft only to find Nicholas   
gone and Natalie lying on the floor-- unconscious. He'd fed from her,   
but didn't kill her or bring her across. My son was nowhere to be   
found." 

Aristotle nodded, realizing that Nick must have fled immediately. "The   
woman?" he asked. 

"I took Natalie to the hospital. I told the doctors I had found her in   
an alley and that I did not know what had occurred. They believed me,   
naturally." 

"Naturally," Aristotle echoed sarcastically. "Although, I must say I   
am quite surprised that you did not finish her off. Charity is so   
unlike you." 

LaCroix glared at him. "And leaving a woman to a slow and painful   
death is *so* unlike Nicholas, isn't it?" he snapped. "I was going to,   
believe me, but something held me back... a feeling which I cannot   
describe, telling me to save her instead." 

"Does she live?" 

"Just barely, Aristotle. She is still unconscious. I left   
instructions to be notified if she awakens." 

"I thought you were leaving Toronto, LaCroix?" Aristotle asked,   
raising an eyebrow at the former Roman general. 

"So did I, but I have decided to be here for her. She will, no doubt,   
have many questions if she awakens at all." 

************** 

LaCroix and Aristotle were both seated beside the hospital bed when   
Natalie awoke from her nap. She'd awakened from her comatose slumber a   
week earlier, but the doctors had deemed her too weak to return to her   
own home. The two vampires had come to her for the first time later at   
evening. They'd told her little about anything, insisting that she must remember   
it on her own. Tonight, they came because she had called for them. 

Taking a deep breath, Natalie began a very rehearsed speech. "I asked   
you both to come here tonight because I need to know what happened to me   
that night." They began to protest. "Don't--just don't. Hear me out.   
I've begun to remember things. I know that I went to the loft that   
night to give Nick an ultimatum." 

"What sort of ultimatum?" LaCroix asked. 

"I was tired, LaCroix. I'd just lost two good friends and my life   
looked about as black as theirs. I wanted..." she choked on a sob as   
the memory of her words to Nick came rushing back to her. "I wanted us   
to make love... to see if Nick could attain mortality the same way   
Janette had with Robert. I thought... I thought that it was the only   
way we would ever have a chance together." 

"And instead of becoming mortal, Nicholas nearly killed you," LaCroix   
added as she became silent. 

She nodded. "There... there's more. Nick's gone, isn't he? You don't   
talk about him, but I know that he's gone." 

"Yes, he is," Aristotle said. "How did you know?" 

"The same I way I know it when one of you comes into my room." Their   
eyes widened with shock. 

"Just what are you saying, Dr. Lambert?" LaCroix was the first to ask. 

"I get... a tingling feeling whenever you both are around me. It's as   
if I could sense you," she told them. "Do you know where Nick is?" she   
asked the now completely silent vampires. 

"No," LaCroix told her. "He did not tell us where he was going." 

"Then... you don't know... what happened after he...?" her voice   
faltered. "He took me in his arms and kissed me. We... began to make   
love, right there on the floor. I-I don't remember what happened after   
his kiss." She turned a questioning gaze to LaCroix. "Do you know?" 

"I did not see it, my dear, but I believe I may be able to fill in some   
of the details you crave," he told her. "Nicholas drank from you. This   
"kiss" you remember was the bite of the vampire he has tried so   
desperately to suppress." He sighed, remembering with sorrow his son's   
struggle to deny his vampiric nature. "It is my belief that when he saw   
that he had taken too much blood from you, Natalie, he panicked and fled   
rather than face what he had done. Whereever he is, Nicholas probably   
thinks that he has murdered you. No doubt he is wallowing in guilt as   
we speak." 

"No doubt," Nat replied wryly. Then she began to cry. 

"We'll find him, Natalie," Aristotle told her. In the days since her   
"accident," he had come to know and care about Natalie Lambert. "When   
we do, you'll be the first to know," he promised. 

************* 

Weeks passed by, but not quickly, however. Natalie regained her   
strength and returned to work. Night after night, she waited to see him   
at his desk or talking to Captain Reese, but she never did. Day after   
day, she awoke with fresh tears in her eyes and a sorrowful pain that   
would not go away. 

Gradually, Natalie began to notice a change in herself. She was more   
tired now than before--sleeping longer and easily fatigued. When the   
nausea began, she at first discounted it to a stomach flu. When it   
continued, she suspected and knew it was time to seek the truth. 

Alone one afternoon, she went to the drug store a purchased a home   
pregnancy test. Later that week, she met with LaCroix and Aristotle. 

"I have something to tell you both," she said. 

"You're having his baby," LaCroix told her by way of reply. 

"How did you know?!" Natalie exclaimed, looking from one to another. 

"I can hear the child's heart beating inside you, my dear," LaCroix   
replied. "At first, I wasn't sure, but lately, there has been no   
mistaking the sound of life within your womb. 

"And you know that it's Nick's?" She asked him. 

"It could be no other's, Natalie. Unless, of course, you have been   
unfaithful to him?" LaCroix's voice and faced showed clearly that he   
did not believe this to be the case. 

"Have you found him yet?" 

Aristotle slowly shook his head. "He must still be on the move,   
Natalie. We won't be able to find him until he finally settles with a   
new Community." 

"What if he doesn't?" she asked him. 

"He must," replied LaCroix. 

********************* 

Part III   
(Aristotle's flashback explanation continues...)   


"Good-bye, Natalie," Captain Joe Reese said, bidding the coroner   
farewell. "You take of yourself and that baby, you hear me?" 

"I will," Natalie replied. With two months left before her baby was   
scheduled to make an entrance into the world, Natalie was starting her   
maternity leave. Her friends with the police department and the   
coroner's office had thrown her a surprise baby shower that night. As a   
result, she was leaving work with more packages and bags than she had on   
her last birthday. 

Nick had still not returned. 

The thought of it made her smile fade, and she turned to leave before   
Reese could see her tears. 

"Oh, Nat, before you go..." he said, drawing her back. "I almost   
forgot this, but Captain Stonetree called me tonight. Two investigators   
for the Crown came by his precinct. They've been assigned to help us   
find Knight. Stonetree thought you might   
want to stop by there before you went home." 

Nat's heart leapt. She'd thought that Nick's search had been called   
off. "Thanks! I'll go right over." She drove straight to the other   
precinct, nearly defying laws of physics to get there. 

Stonetree was talking to two men when she arrived. They were tall,   
thin, and very pale. The sight of them stopped Natalie in her tracks.   
A coldness spread over her and for a moment, she couldn't feel her baby. 

"Natalie? Are you okay? Maybe you should sit down?" Stonetree said,   
coming up to her and helping her to the chair behind his desk. 

"I-I'm fine," she said when she was seated. "I must have tired out   
getting here. Reese said you might have news about Nick." She looked to   
him with pleading eyes. 

"These gentleman are here to find him, Natalie. We were actually   
hoping you might know something that could help us," Stonetree admitted. 

Natalie sighed, slumping wearily in to the chair. "No," she said   
sadly. 

Stonetree walked her to her car after she spoke to the investigators.   
"When is the baby due, Natalie?" he asked. 

"The end of January," she told him. 

"I hope you don't mind my asking, but, is it Nick's baby?" 

"Yes, it is his." 

"Then, I hope we find him soon, Natalie, for this baby's sake," said   
Stonetree. 

************   
"Something weird happened to me tonight," Natalie told Aristotle as he   
sat beside her in her living room. Sydney circled around his feet,   
rubbing his fur upon the vampire's pant legs. 

"What was that?" he asked. 

She told him about the investigators at the precinct. "They were so   
pale and almost scary. When I saw them, it was as if I froze inside.   
For a moment, I thought my baby had died inside of me." 

Aristotle took her hand between his own. A worried look was on his   
face. "You were right to tell me of this, Natalie. I think it wise for   
you to come home with me tonight. We'll wait until dawn to call   
LaCroix." 

"What... what's going, Aristotle?" she asked him. 

The vampire hesitated, biting his lip in indecision. "What did Nick   
ever tell you about Enforcers?" 

**************   
(six years later) 

Lucien LaCroix looked up from the book he was reading to find Aristotle   
in the doorway to his library. They hadn't seen one another since they   
both left Toronto, hoping to throw the Enforcers off Natalie's trail. 

"Aristotle...?" LaCroix said, his voice making an unsaid query. 

"Still no word on Nick," came the reply. 

"Then *why* are you here? You should be looking for him," LaCroix   
countered. 

"They found her, LaCroix," was Aristotle's grim response. He held out   
an envelope. "This was forwarded to me by an attorney in Denver.   
Natalie's dead. I'm going to Denver to pick up the child." 

LaCroix read the contents of the envelope. It was a copy of the Last   
Will and Testament of "Natalie Bishop" of Denver Colorado, requesting   
that her only child, Catherine Flora Bishop be place in the custody of   
her "uncles." 

"We failed her once by not finding Nick, LaCroix," Aristotle told him.   
"I think we owe her this much." 

"I'll go with you," LaCroix said at last. 

****End Flashback**** 

***************** 

Part IV 

  
Nick poured his third glass of the bloodwine, gesturing a query to see   
if Aristotle wanted more. 

"No thank you. I've had enough," came the reply. Aristotle eyed him   
closely. Thus far, Nick had shown little reaction to the story he was   
being told. 

"LaCroix told me I had killed her," Nick said at last. His voice was   
bitter. 

"He would blame you," Aristotle told him with a humorless chuckle.   
"Your master blamed you for her death at the hands of the Enforcers. He   
believes that you should been there to protect her. Instead... it's   
taken nearly three decades just to find you and tell you that you have a   
daughter." 

The bitterness melted suddenly away from Nick's expression and was   
replaced by a look of wonder. "I *do* have a daughter, don't I?" 

"Yes, you do, and she's getting married on Saturday." 

"Married? Is she old enough?" Nick asked incredulously. 

"She's twenty-eight, Nick. She's more than old enough," Aristotle told   
him. "You've missed a lot, my friend." 

***************** 

Saturday night, Nick watched his daughter walk down the aisle of the   
church via video tape. Aristotle and LaCroix were with him. In another   
part of the house, Catherine was packing to go on a honeymoon with her   
new husband, David. 

"She's beautiful," Nick whispered as he listened to the couple pledge   
their vows to one another. 

"Yes, she is," LaCroix replied. Nick turned. His master had tears in   
his eyes. "My beautiful Catherine," he sighed. 

"Katy's not ours anymore, LaCroix," Aristotle reminded him. "You must   
honor our promise." 

"What promise?" Nick asked them. 

It was LaCroix who answered, his voice rife with sorrow. "We promised   
Catherine not to interfere in her new life. Not to come popping in and   
out without warning." 

"Not at all, actually. Katy made us promise that the only way she will   
ever see a vampire again--knowingly--was if she went in search of us,"   
Aristotle clarified. 

"Oh, she'll write, of course, and send pictures of the darling children   
she's sure to have..." lamented LaCroix, "but it will never be the   
same." 

Suddenly, a voice came from the doorway, interrupting their   
conversation. 

"What's this I see?" Catherine said in a slightly teasing voice as she   
spirited into the room. "Tears in the eyes of my tough, time-hardened   
uncles?" She hugged both LaCroix and Aristotle tightly. "I'm not even   
gone yet!"   
  
"I have never been able to part well with my children," LaCroix told   
her, kissing her cheek gently. She nodded, seeming to know. "Shouldn't   
you be packing?" he said, countering his own emotion with fact. 

"I... wanted to speak with..." she turned her eyes to Nick. "With my   
father." 

"Of course, ma petite," LaCroix told her, and the two "uncles" left the   
room swiftly. 

When they were gone, Nick fidgeted nervously. This was the first time   
he had been alone with Catherine since he had met her. "You wanted to   
speak with me?" he asked after an awkward silence. 

"Yes, I did. I wanted to say that... I'm glad I finally got to meet   
you." 

"It must have been difficult--not having parents to love you," he said,   
visions of his own parents coming to his mind. 

"My uncles loved me, and made sure I knew that Mother loved me very   
much." 

"Natalie..." Nick whispered sadly. 

"You miss her, don't you?" Catherine asked him. 

"I thought she was dead. I mean, she *is* dead, but I thought *I* had   
killed her the night I left. I never knew she had lived to give birth   
to our child." 

"I was six when she died. I don't remember it much. She was   
frightened about something... some men coming to get her, I think. I   
remember crying because she sent to stay with our neighbors. And I   
remember the sad smile on her face when she promised to come back for me   
later. She never did." 

At that moment, Catherine seemed more like Natalie than Nick had ever   
thought possible. 

"Here," she said, thrusting a photograph into his hands. 

Nick stared at it. Natalie was posing for the camera, her arm hugging   
a little girl tightly. Both were smiling. The sun was behind them,   
casting light into their hair. On the back of the picture, in Natalie's   
handwriting, words proclaimed "Mommy and Katy,   
May 2002." It must have been taken just before Nat died, he realized.   
As tears began to fall form in his eyes, Nick handed the photograph back   
to his daughter. 

"You keep it," she said, thrusting it back into his hand. 

"Are... are you sure?" he asked. A sob caught in his throat. 

"I am. I have more than enough pictures of Mother. You have nothing.   
You take it. Please... Father." 

Nick clutched the photograph, holding it to his heart. Catherine was   
wrong; he *did* have something... now. 

**************   
The End   
  
  



End file.
